Bubble Nucleation in boiling water: Observational Experiment

Aim

Observe different ways of making steam bubbles form in boiling water.

Prior Knowledge

Description of the Experiment

How do bubbles form when water boils? They need help to nucleate. Here we tried some different objects thrown into the water to see how they affected the boiling process. First we threw in a pin. Then we tried just stirring up the beaker. Check out the results below...

Frame rate:15fps

Size: 480 X 360

File Size: 1.49Mb

Please wait or read the page while the movie loads up.
(This may take a while.) You will need QuickTime to view the movies.
If you want to download the movie to your computer, right-click or control-click
HERE.

Questions

Notice in both cases how the bubble formation is increased by the addition of the two objects.